By Dale Beresford
Each year, the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) releases extensive data regarding workplace injuries, illnesses and fatalities. The data is sliced and diced according to industry, job task, body part, causation and demographics (age, sex, race). This enormous amount of data usually adds up to slightly fewer fatalities and injuries than the year before and points to some industries and demographics where more education is needed.
To the uninitiated this may seem like no more than a bunch of numbers though the reality is that each number represents a person who may have been injured, maimed, made sick or killed in a work-environment and in a circumstance that may well have to do with some deficiency in the work environment. Work injuries and illnesses